Spherical String Pendant Light

Tags

diy light, home decor, pendant light

Characters: Helpful man at Lowes, Heidi, myself

Setting: My room that, although has the ability to have a ceiling mounted light, in fact did not.

Plot: Frankly I was tired of walking into my room, absentmindedly hitting my light switch, and having nothing happen. While my room had a spot where a ceiling light could be mounted, it was only a few unconnected wires covered by a metal plate. Inspired by HGTV, this happened:

I soaked a bunch of string in fabric stiffener & rolled it around around around around an exercise ball. It was messy, and sticky, and my hands were full of glue-ish stuff by the end, but (thanks to some encouragement from Heidi) I finally got it looking something like that (see left). I let the sticky mess dry overnight and went to bed thinking I just wasted $4 on fabric stiffener. Next morning: Woke up, checked to see if the string was dry, and deflated my ball. By some miracle it worked. The ball deflated and left me with a fantastic sphere of string.

Jumped in the car and took a trip to Lowes, had a chat with a helpful man about basic electric wiring. He showed me how to cut the plug off of an pendant light kit and how to wire the cord into my ceiling wires. This is probably the part I’m most proud of. I switched off the breaker, connected the correct wires, mounted a nice light plate, and attached my “shade”. I’m basically an electrician now. Add that to the resume.

I like it. I think I would try it next with white string to make it look a little more light and airy. Also I think it would be awesome to make mini spheres (water balloon mold?) to make party lights.

– H

Adventure Awaits

Tags

banner, decor, diy

Characters: Miss Katie McLean, Moi

Setting: Ma chambre

Plot: Katie wrote a What’s New Post recently about life’s adventures: I loved it! I scored some really really old newspaper from a shady thrift store for 50 cents. (pretty sure it was just someone’s packing materials from an old donated item, should have been free, but oh well) Inspired by Katie’s post – the banner reads: Life’s Adventures Await.

-H

Coffee Filter Wall Art

Tags

coffee filter, diy, wall art

Characters: Just me.

Setting: My apartment. Too much free-time time on my hands; not used to the whole “I’m not a super busy student struggling to balance a part-time job, homework, and school” thing.

Plot: My roommate has these super awesome shelves that were perfect to frame some kind of wall art – so I grabbed some coffee filters and went crazy. I wrinkled them up and cut them down into different sizes; dyed them with coffee, acrylic paint, and left some white; then I used a hammer and sewing pins to arrange them on the wall.

-H

 

Pallet Headboard

Tags

bed, diy, headboard

Characters: Attractive
Habitat for Humanity guy, me.

Setting: My new off-white walled rental in Littleton, CO

Plot: Cream, standard, bland; these are all words to describe my apartment. Don’t get me wrong, its a great layout and I love the space, but it didn’t feel like home and had no character. So, I rolled up my sleeves and bought shipping pallets for only $1 (ONE DOLLAR) each. I bought them at the Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore – which is basically like a thrift store except they sell donated building supplies.

It took some heavy lifting, but I got them up into my apartment, sanded them down so I wouldn’t impale myself with a giant splinter, “white washed” them with some turquoise acrylic paint (which dried SUPER fast), and set them behind my bed.

For safety, I would recommend anchoring them to the wall – but I lack a drill so I am taking my chances.

-H

Hanging Vase

Setting:  Summer time

Characters: Me, and aunt (who unknowingly supplied me with some materials)

Plot: In my room, I have a Bath & Body Works Wallflower air freshner.  I collected all the used up “cartridges” of scent and wanted to make something from them.  To me, they looked like tiny vases, so I grabbed a wire coat hanger bent it up, and made it into just that.

-R